


muse (about you)

by xheartsigh (ChocolatMuffin)



Category: NCT (Band), SuperM (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Artist Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten, Dancer Lee Taemin, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28299132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocolatMuffin/pseuds/xheartsigh
Summary: Ten is struggling with his art assignment but lucky for him, Taemin becomes his muse from one day to another.(a.k.a a series of cheesy, shy and bit awkward encounters of these art boys)
Relationships: Lee Taemin & Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten, Lee Taemin/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43





	muse (about you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wortmalerei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wortmalerei/gifts).



> probably a bit out of character but i had this idea after re-watching this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kz6IiHZZYY)

Ten was having struggles with what each of his kind had faced eventually at one point of their career: an artist block. Or at least partly because while he was doing fine with his postmodern and freestyle classes, his drawing skills seemed to protest whenever he wanted to work on this particular assignment of his that included drawing a realistic human figure. According to Mark Lee he needed a muse but the youngest resident of the International Student Housing had grown up on B-rated Hollywood movies, so Ten couldn't take his word for it. What he needed wasn't a muse but willpower. Or so he believed.

Ten had always loved drawing. He had been scribbling patterns, figures, abstracts things like cats in army uniforms ever since he was a kid. He had a wild imagination and one thing he liked about art was that there was no limit. He didn't need to stick to the boring grey days, he could fill it up with colour, he could express himself in a way he couldn't otherwise. So maybe that's why he had trouble with creating something that was supposed to be realistic without additional details or changes. Swear to god, he tried, he thought it would be that big of a thing. He would just need someone to pose for him and he could be done with the scratch quickly, homework ticked off his endless list of assignments.

"Come on, Tennie, draw me like one of your French girls," Johnny, his roommate joked, fluttering his eyelashes exaggeratedly as he dramatically flopped onto his stomach at the lower bunk bed. Ten threw his pencil at him.

Though, other than being a teasing lil' shit Johnny really did try to help him, not complaining (that much) that even after hours, Ten would get nothing out of it. At least nothing that he considered okay, so the pile of crumpled papers got bigger and bigger at the leg of the bed. In the end, he just banged his head against the desk, sighing devastatingly that he cannot do it.

"You know maybe you just need a different perspective. Take a walk, look at the birds flying or something like that, try not to focus on it too much and maybe inspiration will come to you," Johnny advised while patting his bladebones but the art major couldn't do anything but whimper pitifully.

It was one of those times when Ten would have gladly let self-pity swallow him as a whole but knowing that his deadline was less than two weeks away, he couldn't really do that. As a perfectionist like him, he would have never finished with anything if he left them to the last minute. So he willed himself to get over this slump by taking his roommate's unasked advice. Maybe Johnny didn't mean it literally but Ten really decided to indeed take a walk. A bit of fresh air wouldn't have done him any bad after being inside four walls for the better half of last week except his quick visit to the corner GS25.

What Ten really didn't expect from a campus walk, to run into inspiration. Or rather: inspiration running into him quite literally but the impact of a solid body colliding with his own registered belatedly in him as he was too lost in his thoughts.

"Ah, sorry," a soft voice spoke up and Ten automatically crouched down to help the stranger collect the stuff from the ground that fell out of his open sport bag.

"No problem," he shook his head knowing all too well that it was just as much his fault because he didn't pay attention to his surroundings either. He picked up a few cards scattered around on the ground and straightened his back to hand them over to the other guy whose pitch black locks covered his eyes as he cast those down to check the time before murmuring a  _ 'damn, I'm late' _ and he bolted without Ten being able to utter a single word. He blinked, looking down at the cards in his hands, recognizing membership and point collector ones but most importantly a student card.  _ Lee Taemin _ , it said, with a probably freshman picture of the earlier guy, almond eyes turning into crescents as he smiled for the photo. However, none of the cards held any information about how to return them if lost, so Ten, not having anything better to do anyways, hurried after the guy. Luckily he didn't lose sight of him yet and saw him enter the dance department's building. But when he reached said place, he suddenly didn't know where to go inside, but before he could have run around like a headless chicken, someone nudged his arm with their own.

"Hey, whatcha doing here?" Mark looked up at him with his always full of wonder eyes and oh yes, Ten almost forgot the boy took extra hip hop classes beyond his music major requirements.

"Oh hi. I'm looking for Lee Taemin–"

"You know Lee Taemin?" Mark squealed already excited over nothing and Ten didn't really get what that tone was about. Was this guy famous around here? Should he have known him? Sure, he was an arts major but they didn't really have much in common with dance majors in terms of curriculum. They even studied in separate buildings.

"No, I literally just ran into him and he has left some of his stuff behind, so I wanna return them," Ten shrugged as he explained that he knew basically nothing about this Taemin guy but his name and that he was in a hurry not long ago. Though Mark's reaction made him curious. "How do you know him?"

"Yo, Lee Taemin is like the real deal. Everybody knows him," the boy told him as if he should have known him too. Who knows maybe he had heard of him but Ten was never one to care about rumours and he might have been a sociable person but he couldn’t have known every sunbae on the campus.

"Cool, do you know perhaps where I can find him?"

"Hm, I think he is in the back. I can show you," Mark pointed behind him and Ten nodded, following the younger throughout the labyrinth of the corridors among practice rooms. When they reached one in the end off long hallways, Mark tilted his head at the door with its small glass window through which sensual music could have been heard.

"I gotta go. Meet you later," the enthusiastic first year grinned at Ten who thanked him for his help and waved him goodbye before stepping closer to the door. He didn't want to disturb the guy's practice, so maybe it would have been better to leave his belongings at the reception but the moment he saw the reflection of the dancer's elegant movements in the mirror, every thought Ten had ever had was thrown out of the window.

Even in sweatpants and a worn shirt, hair messy, face bare, the guy was mesmerizing. The song he danced to wasn't a powerful one, yet it left an impact. On Ten at least certainly as he just stood there, speechless. He was literally starstruck, fingers itching to get his iPad or pencils and draw those ethereal movements onto a canvas as a proof that they ever existed. He literally couldn’t look away and he only realized later that he was holding his breath back when he got noticed.

The dancer caught his stare as their gazes met in the mirror and it would have been too late to pretend he wasn't even there. Though the guy didn't seem to mind his presence, he didn't look furious or anything like that, he just whipped his head towards the door with curiosity swimming in those brown orbs but without making a move towards the door. Knowing he had been caught red-handed anyways, Ten took a deep breath and pressed down the handle, stepping into the practice room.

“Sorry, I didn’t intend to bother you. I just… you dropped these earlier,” Ten closed the distance between them and reached out the pack of cards.

“Oh, thank you so much. I wondered where I left then,” the guy, apparently named Taemin, giggled, literally giggled as he took his belongings from him and raked his hand through his hair, brushing his dark fringe out of his forehead. When he looked up at Ten, his eyes had crinkles in their corners from his small smile.

“Did you like it?” he asked which momentary confused the artist and probably his loss of words were obvious because Taemin added as an explanation: “The dance.”

Oh. Ten smiled in slight embarrassment thinking back on his immediate awe. Though there was no reason to lie.

“It’s beautiful. You are a great dancer.” So he said and Taemin seemed shy under the attention and due to the praise which was weird from such a captivating dancer as himself. However, this was the moment in which Ten managed to work up his courage and do something spontaneous again as he blurted out: "Look, I know it will probably sound creepy but… would you mind if I drew you? For an assignment."

"Oh you're an artist then?" Taemin blinked at him, surprised. Oh yeah, Ten knew of the dancer by now but he was still nothing but a nameless stranger to him. He nodded anyways. "Uhm do I need to pose or anything?"

Ten chuckled that this was his biggest concern.

"No, just dance like you just did. That's enough," he smiled, palms sweaty for some reason. Gosh, why did he feel like talking with a crush of him when he literally just met this guy? Gorgeous guy, true but still.

"Okay."

A gorgeous stranger who just agreed to be his model apparently.

"Okay?" Ten asked back with eyes wide because he was so taken aback, he wasn’t sure he heard it right. Didn’t it go way too easily? Taemin just laughed.

"You're so cute. What's your name?"

"Ten. 96-line," the artist introduced himself the same way he was used to but did not expect to see an endeared smile spread on the other’s mouth.

"Nice to meet you, Ten. I'm Taemin and you can call me hyung," the dancer offered and this was how it all started. Finding a muse turned out to be the beginning of Ten’s struggles instead of the end of those troubles because the more time he spent around Taemin the more enamoured he became. Sometimes he even forgot to draw and just stared. He couldn’t help it: Taemin dancing was a whole new level of distraction. And it certainly didn’t help that Taemin, two years his senior, basically babied him.

"Where are you from?" he asked one afternoon out of blue while he was stretching on the smooth floor of the practice room. Ten looked up from his iPad, confused.

"Thailand," he told him, scratching his nape out of embarrassment. The dancer's wide, fond smile wasn't what he expected in return.

"Your accent is cute," Taemin dropped casually before getting up, so luckily he didn’t see how Ten had to gasp for air. Gosh, he acted like such a teenager. Even Johnny who had known him for years was surprised to see him like this and even Ten himself wasn’t sure what it was in the guy that made him feel like it. Taemin had such a magnetic power and he couldn’t resist, he was pulled in by his gravity. Maybe that was why he was the perfect muse, he made the artist want to create more and more drawings featuring him, so in the end his assignment wasn’t that tragic after all. He literally just drew the magic he saw unfold in front of himself whenever the elder danced.

Hence, Ten felt like the two weeks until the due date went by too quickly and here he was with the finished drawing and without an excuse to hang out.

"It's really, really good. You're so talented," Taemin looked through his sketches before turning to the final product. His genuine words made Ten’s fragile heart beat wilder. The moment when the dancer raised his head and turned to him, eyes meeting just as their shoulders grazed each other by sitting so close. "Can I have a copy of this?"

"Yeah sure," the artist stumbled over his own words and while it was nothing to him, seeing Taemin’s beaming smile, he felt it was special.

"Come on, hyung will treat you," Taemin got up and reached out to ruffle his hair affectionately.

So yeah, just when Ten thought that he wouldn’t see the mesmerizing dancer again if he didn’t take the first step, it seemed like the elder had some kind of soft spot for him because he had grown into the habit of inviting him over to his practices, asking for his opinion, going out to eat again, looking through Ten’s drawing, calling him cute - which still made his silly heart jump a beat - and he really didn’t want to misunderstand his intentions but the signs started to make Ten falter. Signs that indicated that maybe he wasn’t just a cute dongsaeng to his hyung either.

For example, that time when he met the dancer’s friends.

"He's Kai, my best friend," Taemin introduced them when he walked in to see them talking in the usual practice room and the tall, tanned guy grinned down at him.

"Glad to meet you, Taemin tells us a lot about you," he smirked and Ten pretended not to see Taemin elbowing his friend in the stomach.

Or for example the times when he touched him.

"I like your hair. Isn't it too much trouble to dye though?” Taemin blurted out suddenly, touching the blonde locks softly and Ten’s mouth fell open, glancing at the guy who seemed very invested in his hair that had gotten a little too long over the semester. 

Or when he tapped on his thigh absentmindedly. When it first happened, the artist swore not only his breath hitched but his heart skipped a beat. And while it seemed like it was casual for Taemin whenever he wanted to get his attention or when he leaned close, Ten was very much aware of it. He couldn’t not be.

Or when he caressed his tattoos as if they had been his prettiest art. The Thai boy was sure he trembled under the gentle touch, even more when Taemin looked him in the eyes and told him that he had one too. Ten’s fingers followed the black lines over the slender body with his breath held back, admiring.

(“Just ask him out already! I’m going crazy just by listening to your rants,” Johnny had told him with a grunt after another night of Ten rambling about Taemin this and Taemin that. He might as well take his advice.)

So with his fingers still slightly pressed on the dancer’s side, Ten looked him in the eyes slowly, already losing himself in the depth of them. He licked his dry lips nervously but only when some kind of awaited light flickered in Taemin’s orbs did he speak up.

“Hyung… do you like me?”

The light didn’t change in the dancer’s eyes, only his smile widened as a chuckle bubbled up from his throat.

“I thought it was obvious,” he said a bit shy, embarrassed, nibbling on his lower lip. It should have been another sign but Ten had enough of those, now he wanted words, promises and dates, so he asked, just to be sure:

“Like in a wanna take you out on a date kind of way?”

Taemin hummed, beaming.

“Hopefully, dates, plural, but yeah,” he giggled, giddy and oh gosh, Ten wanted to hear more of that. Of his muse’s happiness.


End file.
